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Front-end nuclear fuel supply cooperation: Turning allied interdependence into strategic advantage
The global nuclear revival, which is fueled by unprecedented demand for firm, affordable, dispatchable power for artificial intelligence and data center build-out, energy security imperatives, and climate commitments, has exposed a structural reality of the Western fuel cycle: No single allied nation currently possesses the full suite of front-end capabilities. From mining through conversion, enrichment, fabrication, and the emerging deconversion and metallization steps required for reactor fuels, capability is distributed across Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States (collectively, the “Sapporo Five”), as well as a small group of close partners.
Taek Kyum Kim, Chang Hyo Kim
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 127 | Number 3 | November 1997 | Pages 346-357
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE97-A1940
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new optimization method is presented for determining the optimized pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel-loading pattern in the maximization principle of the end-of-cycle (EOC) core reactivity. The new method utilizes the point reactivity model in deriving the objective function corresponding to the EOC core reactivity as a linear function of the fuel-loading binary variables. It also uses a mixed integer programming algorithm consisting of the branch and bound method and dual linear programming algorithm in order to maximize the EOC core reactivity. The utility of the new optimization method is discussed in terms of numerical examples for the fuel-loading-pattern optimization of the cycle 4 core of the Yonggwang unit 2 PWR plant.